Lions tamed again at the New Den

Frank Lampard got his first victory as Coventry City head coach at Millwall last week with a gutsy display in challenging weather conditions at the New Den. Ephron Mason-Clark's second half goal their third win in five visits to New Cross following the 2-1 win in 2020-21 and the 3-0 last season. It's a massive turnaround in City's fortunes in that part of South London – prior to 2020 they had won only twice in 20 visits at either the Den or the New Den (they moved in 1993), stretching back to 1955. Even in the title-winning seasons of 1963-64 and 1966-67 Jimmy Hill's team failed to win at the intimidating old stadium in New Cross. In 1963-64 Jimmy's team drew 0-0 at Cold Blow Lane in a game where City's penalty king Ron Farmer had the only penalty miss of his career. Then, three years later, the Sky Blues lost an early season game 1-0 in their Second Division title season. The only wins in that run came on Boxing Day 1955 when goalkeeper Reg Matthews, soon to be capped by England, put on a brilliant display to thwart the South Londoners and then post-match got embroiled with Millwall fans abusing City's players as they boarded their coach to return home. City won the game 2-0 with goals from Alan Moore and Ken McPherson. Then in 2015 Tony Mowbray's exciting young team won there 4-0 with goals from Adam Armstrong (2), Ruben Lameiras and Jim O'Brien. 

My story about former Coventry City youth player Johnny Stevenson playing for Australia in the 1970s I had emails regarding teammates of Stevenson. Jon Strange asked me about Trevor Smith who played on the left wing in the team but never made the first team. Birmingham-born Trevor, namesake of a famous Blues centre-half from the 1950s, was only 15-years-old when he was a regular in the 1969-70 youth team and went on to play in the youth team for three seasons. He was released by Coventry in the summer of 1972 and joined Walsall but made only three appearances for the Saddlers before dropping into non-league. Over the next few seasons he played for Kidderminster, Cheltenham, Warley Borough, Lye Town, Stourbridge, Bromsgrove, Alvechurch, Oldbury United and AP Leamington.

Another member of that memorable youth team of 1969-70 was Alan Green who was also 15-year-old at the start of that season. Philip Burton pointed out that he won an international cap for his adopted country, USA. Alan, a member of the England Youth team that won the European Championships in 1972, made over 100 first team appearances for the Sky Blues between 1972 and 1979 before moving to the States playing for Washington Diplomats, Jacksonville Tea Men, Golden Bay Earthquakes and New York Cosmos. In 1983 he obtained American citizenship and the following May won his one and only cap against Italy at New York Giants Stadium, a 0-0 draw. He was up against Italian legends such as Franco Baresi, Gaetano Scirea, Roberto Mancini and Marco Tardelli.

For those of you struggling about what to buy your Coventry City-mad loved ones I can recommend three books recently published. First, Michael Keane's 'A Season To Remember '– the story of the 1986-87 season, the season when City stunned the football world by winning the FA Cup. People forget that it was more than the Cup winning season and that John Sillett and George Curtis turned the club's fortunes completely around by playing flowing attractive football and finished in the top half of the First Division for only the fourth time in 20 years. The team won 14 home games, more than any other season in the last 57 years! The book superbly covers the season, match by match.

Talking about 1987, Dave Bennett's biography entitled 'Benno' has recently been published by Pitch Publishing. Co-written by Rich Chamberlain, the book reveals a lot of detail about Dave growing up in Manchester and his early career at Manchester City. With some fascinating stories about the '87 Cup run it's well worth a read.

Finally, Steve Phelps, another regular writer on all things Coventry City, has published an updated version of his 'On This Day'. There is at least one story for every day of the year in diary form and covers all the major events in the club's history. It is an excellent stocking-filler for Sky Blue supporters. 

Coventry City's international managers

After three weeks of speculation Frank Lampard has been named as the new Coventry City head coach and takes charge of his first game today at home to Cardiff City. Frank, of course has had an illustrious playing career playing almost 900 games and scoring over 200 goals as well as winning 106 full caps for England. His appointment is probably the highest profile one since Ron Atkinson arrived in 1995, and for a time helped the club hold their head above water in the Premier League. Time will tell whether it is a good decision as Frank has the ghost of Mark Robins and his seven years of success looking over his shoulder.

He is the 42^nd City manager/head coach (excluding caretaker or interim managers) since the club joined the Football League in 1919. He is also the 17^th former international to sit in the boss' chair and the eighth former England international. Of the 17 only one, Roland Nilsson, can top Frank's number of caps. Roland won 116 caps for Sweden in a dazzling playing career.

                                                Roland Nilsson, City's most capped manager

The seventeen former internationals are as follows:

Roland Nilsson (Sweden) 116 caps

Frank Lampard (England) 106

Terry Butcher (England) 77

Iain Dowie (Northern Ireland) 59

Gary McAllister (Scotland) 57

Phil Neal (England) 50

Gordon Strachan (Scotland) 50

Noel Cantwell (Republic of Ireland) 36

Chris Coleman (Wales) 32

Steven Pressley (Scotland) 32

Don Howe (England) 23

Gordon Milne (England) 14

Peter Reid (England) 13

Joe Mercer (England) 5

Harry Buckle (Northern Ireland) 3

Harry Storer (England) 2

Eric Black (Scotland) 2

Ed Blackaby is regularly in touch with tit-bits about Coventry City's history and recently came up with a fact that was new to me. It concerns Johnny Stevenson, a young Scottish player who was on City's books in the late 60s/early 70s. He was the nephew, through marriage, of City forward at the time, Gerry Baker. Johnny, a midfielder, was part of probably City's greatest ever youth team which included Dennis Mortimer, Alan Green, Bobby Parker and Jimmy Holmes. The team reached the FA Youth Cup final in 1970 only to lose to Tottenham after a two legged final and two replays. Johnny was one of only three members of that team who didn't progress to the first team (David Icke and Ivan Crossley were the others) In those days I used to attend youth games when they were held at Highfield Road and remember the memorable performances by that team. They beat Brentford 13-0 and Shrewsbury 6-0 with Johnny scoring a stunning donkey kick goal a few weeks after Ernie Hunt did it in 1970, before it was outlawed. 

Ed reminded me that Johnny moved back to Scotland after being released in 1972 and played for Hearts for three seasons and briefly for St Johnstone before emigrating to Australia. The surprising information is that he played two games for the Australian national team in 1978 whilst appearing for Sydney City. In 1978 he was selected to play against Greece and the following year against Yugoslav club side Partizan Belgrade. The latter game probably doesn't count as a full international as it was against a club side. We can however say that Johnny was an Australian international.

                                     The 1970 youth squad

It reminded me of another former Coventry City player, full-back Terry Springthorpe, who emigrated to the US in 1951 (months after a big money move from Wolves) and in 1953 was capped by the USA against England!

Some fascinating stats

It's been a fascinating few weeks on and off the field and I thought it would be useful to recap on some of the interesting stats that been cropped up in recent weeks. Let's look at the recent games that the Sky Blues have been involved in.

Preston (away): another defeat at Deepdale, City's unhappiest away ground. The 1-0 defeat, unlucky I would argue, extended the Sky Blues run without a league win there to 23 games. Eight draws and 15 defeats since the first meeting in 1949. It's also 22 league games at any venue since the Sky Blues lowered Proud Preston's flag – Dele Adebola and Michael Doyle the scorers in a 2-1 win at the Ricoh Arena in 2007.

QPR (away): In the 113^th league meeting against the Londoners (City have not met any club more) City came away with a draw. They have won more away games at QPR than any other opponent (17) but failed to make it a hat-trick after the last two comprehensive victories.

Luton (home): Despite a good first half performance the Sky Blues trailed 0-2 at the break. Then, with a stunning comeback, they turned the game on its head with three second half goals to break a poor run against the Hatters. It had been 10 games, including the play-off final two years ago, since City had beaten the Bedfordshire club. The last victory was the 3-0 at Kenilworth Road in League Two in 2017 when Mark McNulty, Jordan Shipley and Duckens Nazon scored, the latter two in injury time. Up until 2007 City's home record against Luton had traditionally been very good (only two losses in 32 games) but since the 1-0 win in 2007 Luton had not been beaten in five visits (three draws and two losses). Coventry comebacks from a two-goal deficit are rare (only 10 in the last 54 years).

Sunderland (away): Another comeback, this time from 0-2 to draw. This was the fourth time in four seasons (five if you count the FA Cup semi final) that the Sky Blues have achieved this feat the others being Blackburn (away) and Bournemouth (away) in 2021-22 and Watford (home) in 2022-23. The result extended the Sky Blues excellent record against Sunderland to nine unbeaten and five unbeaten at the Stadium of Light. The last time City lost to Sunderland was in February 2007 when Roy Keane was in charge of the Black Cats and goals from Dwight Yorke and Carlos Edwards gave them a 2-0 win. City haven't lost at home to Sunderland in 12 home games stretching back to 1985 in the old First Division. The attendance at the Stadium of Light was 43,374 was the largest league crowd to watch the Sky Blues since they left the Premiership 23 years ago, topping the 41,216 that watched the Sky Blues 3-0 win last season.

Farewell Mark Robins

What a tumultuous two weeks we've had in the history of Coventry City with the departure of the long-serving and incredibly successful manager Mark Robins. Mark had previously managed the club in 2012-13 but returned in March 2017 to replace the inept Russell Slade with the Sky Blues rock bottom of League One, on their way to the fourth tier of English football for the first time in almost sixty years. He somehow managed to motivate his limited squad of players to a EFL (Checkatrade) final victory over Oxford United at Wembley and then started the Herculean task of lifting the team back to higher things. With a virtual rebuild of the squad including the inspired signings of Michael Doyle and Marc McNulty Mark scrapped into the League Two play-offs before overturning the formbook with famous victories over Notts County and Exeter City.

The team continued to evolve in League One and after a season of consolidation the addition of players like Kyle McFadzean and Matty Godden helped clinch a League One championship in the second, covid-affected 2019-20 season. Robins and the team found the Championship challenging in 2020-21 just keeping their head above water before a final flurry ensured safety. The triumphant return to the CBS Arena in 2021 saw City competing near the top of the division and the fans witnessed some incredible performances with thrilling victories over champions Fulham (twice), Sheffield United and Bristol City. The final position of 12^th was then improved on in 2022-23 despite the CBS pitch problems causing the team to play six of their first seven games away from home. A run of 18 games with only one defeat with Gyokeres and Hamer to the fore catapulted the Sky Blues to the play-off final at Wembley where sadly the Premier League dream was extinguished in a cruel penalty shoot-out. 

Less than a year later with a much-changed but arguably stronger team a combination of penalty shoot-out misery and VAR wrecked City's fantasy of an FA Cup final appearance in a classic tie with Manchester United and the mental and physical efforts of reaching the semi final probably cost the club a play-off place.

Now seven months later after another slow start Mark Robins has paid the price. Many fans felt he had sufficient credit in the bank from his achievements for the club to warrant more time to correct things but in the cruel world of football management the owner had lost patience. Like John Sillett in 1990 – sacrificed for a 'name' manager, Terry Butcher – Mark Robins' accomplishments appear to have been forgotten in the urge for 'change'.

Mark's record in his second spell as manager of Coventry City was:

Games 335 Won 132 Drawn 92 Lost 111 a win ratio of 39.4%

In addition his record in Cup and other games was:

Games 52 Won 22 Drawn 14 Lost 16

Mark's first spell as City manager in 2012-13 comprised of:

Games 33 Won 17 Drawn 6 Lost 10

A grand total of:

Games 420 Won 171 Drawn 112 Lost 137 a win ratio of 40.7%

Only two managers in the club's history have managed the club in more games, Harry Storer, who was in charge for 691 games in two spells (1931-45 and 1948-53) and Gordon Milne who sat in the chair for 440 games (1972-81). Only two managers who have managed the club for at least a full season can better Robins' overall win ratio of 40.7%, Storer and Jimmy Hill (both on 44.4%) with John Sillett close behind Robins on 40.6%.

There you have it – Mark Robins is statistically up there with the magnicent three of Storer, Hill and Sillett. 

If you enjoy this column and would like to hear more about Coventry City's history you can listen to the Sky Blue History Podcast which is available on Spotify and YouTube. Claudio Cardellino and I talk about all things Sky Blue. Just search for 'Sky Blue History Podcast'

If you have a question about the history or statistics of Coventry City or have a suggested topic for the podcast please drop me an email at clarriebourton@gmail.com and follow me on X/Twitter @clarriebourton

City's most familiar opponents

I had a fascinating email this week from City fan Steve Coyne who has compiled the Sky Blues head to head record in Football League games. He has continued from the table published in the book 'Coventry City the Complete Record' published in 1991, which covered all Coventry City matches to the end of season 1990-91.

Up to 1991, Steve writes, we had faced QPR and Southampton 80 times each, followed by Norwich on 74, and Crystal Palace with 70 matches. It should be pointed out that until the 1958-59 season football was regionalised. Although the City, being a Midland club, had played in both Divisions Three North and South, they played all but one season in the Southern section which accounts for the leaders all being Southern teams. For the same reason until 1967 we played very few of the top Division One clubs from the North and Midlands.

City then went on an unbroken run of 34 seasons in the top flight including being founder members of the Premier League in 1992, meaning 68 matches against clubs like Everton and Arsenal with unbroken membership of the top flight. Since the publication of the record book City have played a further 32 seasons. There have been one or two books, mainly by Jim, recording sections of more recent results but no complete run of the completed seasons to the end of last season, 2023-24. Hence I dug out my own records of CCFC matches since, and by adding my figures to the 1991 records have ended up with what I hope is an up-to –date figure. These are Premier, Football League/EFL matches only and exclude all Cup-ties, friendlies, or our one season in the European Fairs Cup. There were also our two forays into the Play-Offs totalling 4 games, plus two Wembley Play-Off final opponents (2017-18 and 2022-23), but none of the four teams we played feature near the top of our table. 

So now the big reveal. On the 22^nd October 2024 our most recent visit to Loftus Road turns out to be of particular significance being the 113^th time the two teams have faced each other in League matches – a new record. Here are the top ten League opponents to the end of last season. Leeds and Watford will move up to join Leicester on 84 matches by the end of this season in May 2025

1= Queen’s Park Rangers 112

1= Southampton 112

3 Norwich City 104

4 Crystal Palace 98

5 Nottingham Forest 90 

6 West Ham United 88

7 Leicester City 84

8= Leeds United 82

8= Ipswich Town 82

8= Tottenham Hotspur 82

8= Watford 82

Figures include the Covid interrupted season 2019-20 where we played only 34 matches including ten clubs (further down the list) who we played just once.

Thanks Steve.

To add to Steve's excellent research I have identified the 15 clubs who City have only met twice (home and away) in their Football League history i.e. were in the same division for one season.

Six were encountered in the League Two season in 2017-18 (Barnet, Cambridge United, Cheltenham Town, Forest Green Rovers, Morecambe, Newport County (new)). Four were opponents in that one season in Division Three North in 1925-26 (Ashington, Durham City, New Brighton and Wigan Borough). Three were met in Division Four in 1958-59 (Chester City, Darlington and Workington Town). Aberdare Athletic were in Division Three South in 1926-27 whilst Leeds City are a defunct club that City met in 1919. The new Newport County are nothing to do with the club who City met 38 times between 1919-62. 

Ben & Oggy - Kings of the Clean Sheets

Coventry City's deserved 3-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers on Tuesday night ended a poor run of five league games without a win and appears to have quietened the vocal minority urging for the sacking of manager Mark Robins. Bearing in mind the status of previously unbeaten Blackburn, few fans would have predicted a 3-0 home win. The result confirms my theory that bad runs often end with a surprise win and good runs often end with an unexpected defeat. In 2022-23 City were in a brilliant run of nine games without defeat but were brought down to earth with a 4-0 home loss to Stoke City. The previous season City had only one win in eight before going to Craven Cottage and beating the league leaders 3-1. One should never take results for granted in this crazy Championship!

All City fans know of our bogey teams (Preston and Swansea being the main ones) but the Sky Blues are becoming Blackburn's bogey team. Since Rovers won 4-0 at St Andrews in 2020 they have failed to win any of the eight games between the clubs. They have also failed to win a league game at the CBS Arena in five visits.

The Blackburn victory delivered City's first league clean sheet of the season and a personal triumph for Ben Wilson (although he had little to do on the night). Ben has now kept 45 clean sheets in 115 games since arriving at the club in 2019 and has the best clean sheet record of any Coventry City goalkeeper.

Ben is up to sixth place in the club's all-time list of clean sheets and has now remained goalless in 39% of his competitive games for the club. His closest rivals in the percentage table in 1930s 'keeper Bill Morgan with 34% achieved in the Harry Storer era when the team had defensively minded approach. The majority of City 'keepers in the list had a clean sheet percentage in the range of 21-26% with even Sky Blue legend Steve Ogrizovic only reaching 29% (albeit in the top flight).

Most clean sheets (all games)

	Games	Clean sheets	% clean sheets
1. Steve Ogrizovic	601	175	29%
2. Bill Glazier	402	95	24%
3. Alf Wood	246	64	26%
4. Bill Morgan	160	54	34%
5. Jerry Best	236	52	22%
6. Ben Wilson	115	45	39%
7. Les Sealey	180	43	24%
8. Horace Pearson	124	40	32%
9. Arthur Lightening	165	39	24%
10. Lee Burge	160	34	21%
11. Magnus Hedman	151	33	22%
11. Keiren Westwood	138	33	24%

If you enjoy this column and would like to hear more about Coventry City's history you can listen to the Sky Blue History Podcast which is available on Spotify and YouTube. Claudio Cardellino and I talk about all things Sky Blue. Just search for 'Sky Blue History Podcast'

Dennis Churms RIP

I was sad to hear that Dennis Churms, the oldest former Coventry City player, had passed away last weekend. Dennis, who was 93-years-old, had lived in the Folkestone area for many years despite hailing from Rotherham in Yorkshire. As chairman of CCFPA I tried very hard on a number of occasions to persuade him to attend a Legends Day but he was never quite fit enough to make the trip from the south coast. 

Dennis played his early football with Cheshire side Spurley Hey FC before signing for his hometown club in 1950. Having to play in reserve team football for three seasons he finally got a first team opportunity in Rotherham's home Division 2 game with Nottingham Forest (3-0) playing at inside-forward (midfield). He retained his place the following week in a 1-1 away draw with Luton. Rotherham were a leading side in the old Second Division in the mid 1950s and the following season achieved the club's highest ever position in the Football League. They finished third and missed out on promotion on goal difference to Birmingham on the final day of the season with Dennis appearing in ten games. After just two games the following season he joined Coventry in the summer of 1956. 

He joined a club in turmoil having lost manager Jesse Carver halfway through the previous campaign and staggered through to the end of the season with Carver's number two, George Raynor in charge. Rather than having faith in the coaching ability of Raynor – who would take Sweden to the World cup final in 1958 – the board appointed Harry Warren. Warren had been manager of Southend since the war without ever threatening to get the Shrimpers out of Division Three South. The appointment was disastrous and the club went backwards under Warren – finishing 16^th. Churms atarted the season as first choice inside forward and scored the only goal on his debut against Exeter City. He managed one more goal, in a 5-1 home win over QPR but lost his place after ten starts.

By March 1957 he was playing for Exeter City for whom he 45 appearances, scoring eight goals. In 1958 Exeter finished rock bottom of Division Three South and had to apply for re-election with Dennis released. He joined Southern League Folkestone Town in 1959 and went on to become one of the most revered players in the club's history and he continued to live in the town after his playing retirement in 1967.

This was a period when non league Folkestone attracted players from the Football League in part with the offer of a day job and even in some cases accommodation with it. In 1959-60, Folkestone rejoined the Southern League as Folkestone Town FC and gained promotion to the Premier Division and it started a golden era for the club with some exciting FA Cup runs. In 1965 Dennis was part of the team that reached the third round by beating Third Division Gillingham and Wimbledon before losing to Crewe. Coincidentally, if Folkestone had beaten Crewe they would have faced the Sky Blues in round four.

Dennis spent 34 years working for British Railways as an electrician before taking early retirement in 1993. He remained active regularly playing squash and golf and taking a keen interest in football and horse racing. Richard Murrill the secretary of Folkestone Invicta FC told me that Dennis was an unassuming man who, like many of his generation, maintained his great dignity right until the end.

His funeral will take place on 11^th October at Hawkinge Crematorium, near Folkestone (11.30).

Last week week I wrote about former City players who currently manage home international teams. There are numerous other international bosses with Coventry City connections. In addition to Lee Carsley, former players Sam Allardyce and Stuart Pearce have managed England for one game only and Joe Mercer managed the national team in the summer of 1974 whilst the general manager of the Sky Blues. Joe was asked to take the reins following the sacking of Sir Alf Ramsey and the arrival of Don Revie and lost only one of his seven games at the helm. Pearce was caretaker manager for one game (a 2-3 home loss to Netherlands in 2012). Allardyce took the job in 2016 but only lasted one game, a 1-0 away victory over Slovakia, before being relieved of his duties over a press-led sting.

Gordon Strachan is the only former Coventry player to manage Scotland and was in charge of the national team for 40 games between 2013-17, suceeding Craig Levein and being followed by Malky Mackay.

Craig Bellamy is the fifth former Coventry player to manage Wales. Terry Yorath was in charge for 41 games (1988-93), Bobby Gould for 24 games (1995-99), Chris Coleman for 49 games (2012-17) and Robert Page for 45 games (2020-24) being the others.

Prior to Michael O'Neill the only former Coventry player to manage Northern Ireland was Dave Clements who was appointed player-manager in 1975, succeeding Terry Neil. He was also playing for Everton at the time and managed the national team for 11 games before handing the reins to Danny Blanchflower in 1976 after accepting an offer to play for New York Cosmos.